Sister's Echo

Chapter 1

I am jolted awake by the sound of the front door creaking open. Both of my parents are home, and Emilia is in her bed across the room; I can see the rising and falling of her breath. I creep out of my bed and over to the window. There's a black van sitting out front that was not there before. I run towards our room door to lock it, but the footsteps approach faster than I expected, and I dive behind the desk next to Emilias bed.

Theres no time to get her to cover so I pull the covers over her head, to make it look like a pile of clothes and blankets. Thank god she never cleans up her clothes. I flatten my body as much as I can, my breaths are coming out in short shallow pants. Our room door opens slowly, my breath hitches in my throat; I cant see the persons face but I can see the glint of an eight inch kitchen knife. The air that was once stuck in my lungs leaves my body as quick as it can. I hold back a violent coughing fit, fear has me paralyzed, I couldn't move even if I wanted to.

He walks over to my bed and desk, and opens all the drawers semi-quietly, he pulls out every piece of jewelry I own and shoves it in his pockets. I glance at the box under my bed that has my treasured necklace from great grandma, He doesnt seem to notice it but then he starts walking towards me and Emilia. He does not seem to notice were here, because he opens her drawers and takes the contents of them and shoves it into his pockets. But just then, Emilia moves just enough to make the pile of clothes move.

The man stops and I can get a full good glimpse of him. There is still a shadow over his face but I can see a small glint of light coming from where his eyebrow should be and I can see a piercing in the side of his nose; hes tall, probably around six foot one, but then again anyone could seem tall when theyre in this scenario. I was too focused on his looks that I forgot momentarily about Emilia. The man started walking closer to her bed. She had stopped moving, but he saw it and he was obviously nervous about it. I can see the blade shaking in his hand. He grabbed the blankets and clothes in his left hand and held the knife up with his right. He ripped the cover away from Emilia, she had woken up but before she could even make a sound he plunged the knife into her chest. I wanted to scream, run, or knock the desk over into him, but fear and shock had kept me silent and rooted to my place.

He did not stop with the one, most likely fatal blow; he thrusted the knife into her ten more times. I couldnt move, the sound of the knife hitting her ribs and cutting through her diaphragm. There was no way she could have survived the first blow but he kept going, after the eleventh thrusts he grabbed our tv and ran out of our room. As soon as he was gone I collapsed, air rushed back into my lungs and tears freely flowed out of my eyes. I grab my phone with trembling hands and hit the the sos button on it. I faintly hear the van pulling away and I immediately run over to Emilia, I asses the wounds penetrating her chest, I can see her heart pumping lightly but the gurgling sound coming from the wounds almost make me turn away and vomit. I quickly grab a shirt from off the floor and press it into the stab wounds but the gurgling noise continued. I grab more shirts and keep packing the wounds, I have taken basic medical courses because I want to be a doctor, but as I sit here waiting for the EMTs to arrive I am rethinking the decision. I can feel Emilia's life draining out of her body, everytime her heart pumps the clothing packing her wounds get darker and darker with her scarlet blood. I cant hear anything going on around me besides the blood rushing in my ears. My hands are shaking and my breath is still coming out in pants. I can see the ambulance lights start to fill the room with the disco like color. Had Emilia not be lying here die should would have said 'let's have a dance party' She always loved to dance and tried to make me smile when something bad happens.

Mom and Dad coming running into our room, the lights must have woken them up. Mom drops to her knees when she realizes what's going on. Dad tries to pry me off of Emilia but to no avail. The EMTs rushed in, as soon as I saw them I fell limp, I stopped holding pressure to her wounds, it seemed like I stopped breathing. They lifted Emilia off of her bed and placed her on their gurney, they rolled her away. One of the EMTs peeled mom off the floor and basically carried her to the ambulance. My dad is mumbling into my ear but I cant hear him. The scene is just replaying in my mind, over and over and over again; like a record that just keeps skipping. I can feel my body floating, I limply roll my head to the side, my dad is carrying me toward another ambulance. When the EMTs see him they take me from him and lay me down on a journey. As soon as I make contact with the soft fabric on the gurney, my senses start working again. Overwhelmed by the sound and smells I lean over and vomit into a bag that was being pressed towards my face. I empty the contents of my stomach into the bag till all I am vomiting is bile. I lay back down and I feel a sharp prick in my forearm. I faintly hear the EMT saying he was going to give me a sedative because I was in shock. I knew that meant they were afraid of me lashing out. One of the classes I took talked about patients in shock. I didnt care anymore, I let the darkness overtake me.